A long chat with Jacky, owner of Full Circle Bakes and the one that introduced stuffed cookies to Glasgow.
Follow them on Instagram @fullcirclebakes
Open Saturday and Sunday 10am- 5pm
I follow Jacky since the first days of Full Circle Bakes, from the first markets she was doing, her life in college, and the postal orders during the lockdown.
It seems I know her for ages, like a person that has always been in my life. Instagram builds up connections with people that you don't expect.
I feel worried if I see she is not publishing one of her stories for two days.
This is a great moment for Jacky as a new big project is seeing finally the light. And if you have to believe in dreams, this is certainly a sweet one.
The hiring process is on the way and the new unit is almost ready.
It is in these times of growth that I love to know when everything started so let me fire my first question!
So Jacky, when did your passion for bakery start?
"I always wanted to be a pastry chef, even when I was a little kid. I started baking with my mum.
My brother was in the skate park group and they were doing fundraising to have their skate park built. My mum was baking muffins.
"Hey can I help, can I join in?" I was maybe 8 or 9 years old. No offense to my mum that is still a great baker but I quickly overtook her (she laughs) and I realized how amazing and fun this was.
Back then I did not think I could do it. In my dream world, I would love to be a pastry chef but I thought I could not do that.
My level of confidence was not too high. It is something I had to work on during all these years and certainly, I was not near confident as I am now.
I worked in bars, restaurants, in the beer industry for 3 and a half years.
In 2018 I had a complete mental breakdown.
Once I got myself back on my feet I said: if I want to be a pastry chef I am just gonna do it. Life is too short for waiting.
When I started applying for jobs in bakeries I was constantly rejected as I did not have kitchen experience or qualifications.
I was up on my feet, no one was giving me a job.
So my dream was up there: I signed up for college, trained as a professional chef and I took my qualification in professional cookery. On the same day I started college I quit my bar job and secured a job as a second chef in a bakery in town. I was doing college and working on the weekend doing all the baking for them for two years.
During this time I noticed how good I was and how much I was enjoying this job but I wanted a bit more first of all from myself.
In between my first and second year in college, I got bored, I needed a task, a project. I decided to start Full Circle Bakes.
Initially, while I was at college I was selling in markets. Then things started to be a bit too much, the job, the college, the markets and I quit my job. "I will be self-employed" seemed to be a great idea at that time. It was in May 2020, in the middle of the Covid lockdown that I got my graduation.
At this point I found myself not getting Saas anymore, I could not sell in markets. It was that time when they were putting limits on the amount of flour you could buy. I did not have suppliers at that time. I have no way to make any money.
I sold gift cards for a bit so it gave me a bit of time and then as soon as it was safe enough I used my parent's kitchen for a while. I started doing treat boxes and delivering them myself. I was struggling to sell more than four boxes a week for £10. I decided to start postal orders as it was a new thing. I had to try and this went well.
We were making only 200 boxes in a drop and before opening the orders on the website there were already 800 people waiting.
It was just chaos, it was so hard to keep on top of this but it kept us going for a while.
Then I started subletting the kitchen in Primal Roast in town for a few months and I kept doing postal orders, wholesale, and pop-ups.
Unfortunately, they closed in 2020 and then I found this place. It is small but at that time I did not have much choice. I was quickly running out of money- I had to make it work. In six weeks I started again with postal orders and it was difficult to keep up with the demand of it. Every week we made more and more but still was not enough.
Once the situation improved a bit in a way to keep ourselves and our customers safe I opened the shop. We were initially planning to have a week on and a week off and the shop went well.
I was not expecting to see so many people queuing out of the shop: it was great.
I never managed a kitchen before and in a very quick time, I was the person managing all this?
There are so many things I would love to do better but at the moment I feel blessed with how many lovely customers we have and how many of them became regulars. It is a lovely community I found myself in. Lovely and supportive. "
Your product was new to Glasgow when you started doing your famous stuffed cookies and they have been welcomed with big enthusiasm. But do you think the fact you have always been the face of this business is also part of the success of Full Circle Bakes?
"I think it is a good part of why we are still doing well under the current climate.
About the stuffed cookies, the thing that makes me smile now is that I was not planning of selling them initially. It happened during lockdown as I was uploading tutorials and recipes like a lot of people. One day I experimented a bit more than usual and I posted this. The reaction from people was instantly good. People were texting me saying they want to buy this. At that time no one was doing stuffed cookies in Glasgow, maybe some places down in England or London. I started doing more research and new ideas came after. I was not thinking of being a cookie bakery but then the name worked perfectly. Isn'it?
Obviously, so many people come because the cookies are good but they come also because they are following me. This was not my intention. Some people could say the opposite as they see me often on my channels but I am a person that has a very private life.
Talking to the camera, stories, and what I do daily helped me to build a strong community around me and to get to know better also my customers. was at the time I reached 10k and I felt I have a community behind, and being more online myself I get to know customers a bit more.
I just try to be very authentic, I share what is real life in the bakery, the behind the scenes, and even some bad moments we can experience.
And the people have been great, it is like a family.
Sometimes as business owners, we do not think to be so important for the people that come to our shops. But the reality is that people really care about us and our stories. the effect with give to people. I think the fact you opened up about your autism sent a message out there.
I was diagnosed of being autistic 5 years ago, 6 months before I started my business.
It took me a long time to come to terms with this.
Now we talk a lot about autism and ADHD but before it was sadly not covered the way it is now.
I always wanted to post it about it online. I think a couple of years went by before I did it.
It was one of the Autism Awareness month I found the courage to speak publicly.
I felt like I was living a double life, not being authentic to people and also trying to act in a way kind of covering it. I just feel it is such an important part of my life, it is who I am. I wanna be myself.
The thing that came for that that I was not expecting was how much helped other people.
I have so many people that messaged me saying because of my posts they realize they were autistic or their kids were autistic. This also made them understand their autistic friends or relatives a bit more. It makes my heart feel so full.
A little kid recently brought me a card saying she is the only autistic girl in her class and that she loves me for what I do. I have some parents messaged me saying that they have autistic children and they are always worried about how their life would go but after seeing me opening a bakery, achieving something important makes them feel better as they see also their kids can make it themselves.
I do not think twice about posting my ADHD symptoms now. It shows people what it means to be autistic or ADHD people in a way that is not shown in media very often.
Also, this is what looks like running a business when you are an autistic person.
I think opening up about this helps me as well- I feel I am not alone in this.
I think it is a good thing there is more awareness now than it was in the past.
I try to show the other side of things, and how they affect me.
This is something that really passionates me.
In terms of running a business, I have lots of neurodivergent people working with me and I want to hire more. I want to give them a real chance to get the accessibility. It is not difficult to meet people's needs, to make a fairer and more equal workspace. "
You are now opening a new unit. Exciting months ahead I suppose.
"Hopefully, it will happen in the next couple of months.
There is not much missing now. It was an empty unit so we had to do all the joinery work, put the kitchen in there. A huge investment, a huge risk. I make huge life choices. She says laughing.
I felt this is the right choice to make for growing my business, even in these uncertain times. I realized that the space where Full Circle Bakes became too small for all the projects I want to launch.
We are planning of restarting postal orders. We will have a space dedicated only to this. On the other side, we will have a big kitchen that will allow us to bake for the shop, keep up on demand and open also custom orders which were a thing I always wanted to do.
The good news is that in this way I will be able to open the shop a day more!
I had to battle a lot with my imposter syndrome before taking this choice. I understand this is also part of owning your own business.
At every stage of the business, it seemed to me I did not know what I was doing but then I figured out how to do it. If I look back at two years ago and look at the things I was not able to do back then, they do not bother me now. Personal growth has been great, I am a totally different person now.
I never had something that counted so much in my life, that became such a priority, that means this much. This is my baby. Even if at times it gets stressful and I have moments when I think "Why am I doing this?", I would never live without my bakery."
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